MPA President Nina Link Announces Decision to Step Down at Year's End

“Nina Link’s extraordinary vision and thought leadership have guided the magazine industry throughout her 13-year tenure as President and CEO of MPA,” said Clinton. “She’s been tireless in her efforts championing the strengths and vitality of magazines to the advertising, technology and financial communities as well as the press.”

Clinton added, “The fact that almost every major consumer magazine publishing company in the United States is an MPA member and that the organization remains fiscally sound especially after the recent recession speaks to Nina’s exceptional skills as a manager and a unifying force in a competitive industry with so many disparate interests.”

“MPA has worked effectively over the past two years to reposition itself and the industry,” said Link. “We rebranded and refocused the mission and priorities of MPA. We changed our management team. We changed how we engaged with our members. Because of the successful transformation of MPA, I decided that this was the ideal time to reestablish my consulting and product development firm.”
Under Link’s leadership, MPA undertook numerous successful initiatives including:

• Strengthened MPA’s influence in Washington to address print and digital issues in the areas of copyright, privacy, First Amendment and consumer protection. MPA has also been at the forefront in the battle to contain postal rate increases and a strong advocate for the passage of postal reform.

• Advanced the industry’s digital expansion through conferences, professional development programs, research, best practices as well as showcased industry digital efforts on the MPA website and the MPA daily e-newsletter.

• Created a coalition of senior magazine executives in 2012 to establish voluntary tablet guidelines and tools to provide understanding and clarity about the measurement of magazine media audiences on tablets for the advertising community

• Spearheaded a measurement initiative in 2008 to move the magazine industry toward an audience metric that is more timely, more accountable and more comparable to other media.

• Launched a multi-million-dollar three-year marketing and advertising campaign promoting magazines in 2005. The campaign resulted in magazines being the first medium to put forth the powerful concept of “engagement” leading to reader “action.”

Nina Link: A Brief Biography

Nina Link has held the position of MPA President longer than anyone in the organization’s 93-year history. Since joining MPA in late 1999, Ms. Link has led the organization’s efforts to promote the vitality of the magazine industry to the advertising, marketing and financial communities as well as the press and the public. She has advanced the interests of magazine media in the areas of government affairs, advertising, consumer marketing and the transformation to digital platforms. Under Ms. Link’s leadership, MPA has played a pivotal role in providing digital resources and training to its membership. Ms. Link led the creation of the first e-reading conference for magazines (two weeks before the original iPad went on sale) as well as the industry’s first awards program honoring excellence on digital platforms. Prior to joining MPA, Ms. Link served as Group President, Publishing and Interactive for Sesame Workshop, formerly Children’s Television Workshop (CTW). Ms. Link also headed her own consulting and product development firm, The Link Group, Inc. Her consultancy worked with a number of companies including the Publishing Division of CTW, and specialized in developing multimedia educational and training systems, programs and materials for industrial, educational, governmental and non-profit institutions. Ms. Link currently serves on the Boards of the Ad Council, New York University’s Center for Publishing, and International Federation of Periodical Press (FIPP). She is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards.

MPA–The Association of Magazine Media is the industry association for multi-platform magazine companies. Established in 1919, MPA represents approximately 225 domestic magazine media companies with more than 1,000 titles, nearly 50 international companies and more than 100 associate members. Staffed by magazine industry specialists, MPA is headquartered in New York City, with a government affairs office in Washington, DC. For more information, please visit www.magazine.org.